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Dog Weight Loss: Dog Food for Weight Loss

When your dog is overweight, they begin to suffer loss of breath, joint problems, and difficulty walking. Luckily, managing your dog’s weight does not have to be difficult. You can improve your health and your dog’s with an exercise regimen and weight loss dog food.

Signs Your Dog is Overweight

Feel Your Dogs Ribs

Can you easily feel your dog’s ribs? There can be a slight amount of fat over each rib, but you should be able to feel each rib easily. If your dog’s ribs are visible, then your dog is too thin! You should also be able to feel a bit of fat over your dog’s spine, shoulders, and ribs.

Look at Your Dog from Above

Your dog’s waist should be defined behind their ribs. If your dog has little to no waist, then your dog is overweight. If your dog has an extremely defined waist, then your dog is underweight. Your dog’s bones should not be visible, and your dog should not have too much excess fat.

They Struggle with Everyday Activity

When your dog struggles to groom themselves, to walk around, to go up the stairs, or to breath after activity, your dog is most likely overweight. If your dog struggles to have bowel movements, this is also a sign your dog is overweight.

The calories your dog consumes, must be lower than the number of calories your dog burns. It is important not to starve your dog or reduce their caloric intake too much. Reducing the caloric intake too low can actually maintain excess weight on your dog.

We recommend a high quality dog food for your dog’s weight loss management. If you give your dog cheaper, commercial food, your dog may “feel” hungry because they want more nutrients. If you can, make your own homemade dog food. By doing so, you will offer more high quality nutrients to your dog than most commercial dog foods will.

Food Portion Size Recommendations

We recommend the following homemade weight loss dog food recipe for a week. With this recipe, you can test your dog’s weight loss with time. Use the following table to know how much food to give your dog:

Weight of Dog

Amount of Food per Day

5 lb (2.3 kg)

0.5 – 5/8 cups (50 – 65 grams)

10 lb (4.5 kg)

3/4 – 1 cups (75 – 100 grams)

20 lb (9.1 kg)

1.25 – 1.75 cups (130 – 180 grams)

40 lb (18 kg)

2.25 – 3 cups (230 – 305 grams)

60 lb (27 kg)

3 – 4 cups (305 – 410 grams)

80 lb (36 kg)

3.67 – 5 cups (375 – 510 grams)

100 lb (36 kg)

4.25 – 6 cups (435 – 610 grams)

Commercial Weight Loss Dog Foods

Honest Kitchen Dog Food is an excellent alternative to homemade dog food. The food created by the Honest Kitchen is grain free and only contains high quality ingredients like: turkey, flaxseed, celery, spinach, kelp, and eggs. This dog food will offer your dog a full spectrum of the vitamins they need to thrive.

The Only Natural EasyRaw Dog Food is another great alternative to home cooked food. This food includes fresh ingredients that are well preserved including: sweet potatoes, beef, carrots, spinach, apple, ginger, and broccoli. These are foods that are whole, natural foods that provide your dog with the most absorbable nutrients available on earth!

What we like most about this weight loss dog food is that it offers a variety of vitamins that support your dogs overall health and wellbeing. The Fruitable Pumpkin Weight Loss Supplement contains vitamin C, A and E. These vitamins also support healthy skin, coat, and eyes.